Helicopter flying differs from fixed wing aircraft with significantly more vertical movement and dynamics. As such, representing cues for helicopter operation, for example, a pitch and roll cue and a collective cue, on a typical synthetic vision system (SVS) display presents more issues in comparison to the fixed wing aircraft.
Airplanes and helicopters commonly integrate a function referred to as a flight director which provides guidance to the pilot regarding how to manipulate the aircraft controls to align the aircraft with a path that has been selected using the aircraft navigation system.
Helicopter flight directors have traditionally used separate cues to provide guidance for the collective, pitch and roll control axes of the aircraft. The cues are displayed as markers that move with respect to a fixed reference point for each axis of control. The collective cue is represented as a symbol that is representative of a collective control. The symbol moves up and down with respect to, for example, a pair of fixed triangles which provides the reference point. The pilot is responsible to move the collective control up or down to place the collective cue symbol between the two triangles. Similar behavior also applies to the pitch and roll axes, where a fixed reference marker is provided and the pilot is responsible for aligning the cue with the reference markers by maneuvering the aircraft in the corresponding axis.
A known implementation for the flight director cues in the pitch and roll axes provides a “single cue” format which integrates the pitch and roll cues by using rotation of the cue to command roll axis movement and up and down movement to command pitch axis control. This symbology is used in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Helicopters, with their unique ability to move in the vertical axis require an additional cue to provide guidance in that axis.
Prior implementations of SVS and flight path marker (FPM) functionality in fixed wing aircraft have integrated the pitch and roll flight director (FD) cues with the FPM by using functionality similar to a single cue FD symbology.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method of integrating displayed cues for display to the pilot for flying the helicopter. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.